This invention relates to the sport of football wherein the players wear protective gear comprised of structural members lined with padding. Included in such gear are knee pads, elbow pads and shoulder pads which are the principal subject of this invention. Heretofore, the padding which lines these protective gear has been sewed into place, by heavy stitching passed through the structural members of sheet material shaped to contours overlying the body parts of the athletes to be protected. In practice, the overlying structural members were fiber material in the past, and at the present day they are formed of high density polyethelene plastic, or the like. By sewing the padding into a secure position at the interior or said structural members, a permanent installation is obtained, but totally secure and immoveable so that replacement is next to impossible on a practical basis. In practice, replacement of sewed together pad construction is resorted to only at wide intervals of time, if at all, because of the very high cost of replacement. For example, the sewing must be cut and pulled out piece by piece, and invariably the padding or lining is destroyed and must be renewed, as it becomes irreparable. Accordingly, it is a general object of this invention to provide easily replaceable padding in athletic protective gear. As shown herein, the protective gear is a shoulder pad for football, not to preclude any other kind of similar protective gear with padding or lining.
Football shoulder pads are bilaterally symmetrical and are comprised of right and left arches extending over the shoulders and with anterior and posterior portions overlying the chest and back of the athlete. The posterior portions are permanently hinged together on a vertical axis over the athlete's back or spine, while the anterior portions are connected together on a vertical line over the athlete's sternum as by means of straps or lacing. Alternately, both anterior and posterior portions are permanently hinged together. At least one epaulet and/or shoulder cap extends laterally from each arch, and these too are lined with padding. In each instance the protecting structural member is lined with padding and they are capable of substantial articulation, forming covers in the nature of mail plates with overlapped portions. It is the padding or inner lining of these various structural members with which this invention is concerned, it being an object to provide for the immediate replaceability of such padding, without the tediousness of cutting out and re-sewing as it has been done throughout the past. In practicing this invention, the padding is made secure without stitching, and without the use of buckles, ties or snaps, yet with security subject to instant replaceability.
The hook-and-loop fastener concept is employed herein as a secondary fastener wherein hard hook elements at one side of an interface of overlapped strapping engages soft loop elements at the other side of the interface. It is characteristic that such a fastener has moderate holding ability or power in the longitudinal plane of the interface, but very little resistance to separation in a direction vertical to that plane. It is significant that tremendous abuse tending to cause separation of any fastener system is continuously existant in athletic gear such as a shoulder pad which is the primary concern herein. That is, the various structural members, hinges, ties and paddings or linings are repeatedly subject to ripping and tearing forces, applied in a multitude of indescribable ways and under high impact loads in combinations of tension and compression applications, resulting in twisting and prying action by said members and underlying padding. The aforesaid hook-and-loop fastener is most satisfactory under passive or static conditions, but it can hardly be said that such an ideal condition exists at all under working conditions associated with the use of football shoulder pads, and the like. Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a fastener system for gear of the type herein referred to which is efficient and totally effective under agressive conditions, as distinguished from a fastener system which alone is satisfactory only under passive conditions. With the present invention, the hook-and-loop fasteners are secondary and do not pull apart as might be expected if applied in the usual manner.
It is an object of this invention to provide for securement of padding to the flat and contoured undersurface of structural members, by means of a strap having a "bite" engagement over a "bitt" provided in an overlying structural member. As will be described, primary securement is established by means of a single bite over a single bitt, and preferably securement is established by means of a double bite over a pair of spaced bitts. The strap or straps are then made secure by secondary hook-and-loop fastener means, all as hereinafter described.